Leaving Whanganui after five days on the river felt very exciting as it was way more comfortable to be back hiking and on solid ground. However, ahead of us were roughly 100 kilometers along mostly backcountry roads to Palmerston North. But before hitting the road, we took an elevator out of Whanganui! Yes, an elevator connects the city to the suburb on Durie Hill with a 66 m elevator shaft. Of course, we took this opportunity to avoid the 196 steps and also enjoyed a lovely chat with the friendly person operating the elevator. After that, it was a hot, soggy, and somewhat monotonous hike along roads that finally brought us back to a beach. It felt great to be back at the ocean: many West Coast beaches have black sand, and this particular one additionally had a lot of driftwood sitting just below the dunes. We saw no one except some other hikers who also headed for the little campsite at Koitiata from where we witnessed a fantastic sunset and could even get a glimpse of Mt Taranaki (ask someone to draw a volcano – you’d get the perfect cone-shape that Taranaki is). The next day was even more beach walk, but eventually, we were back on long, monotonous roads towards Palmerston. We stopped in Bulls for the night, as my feet developed blisters that started to bug me quite a bit. Bulls is an interesting town that lives its name: all over the town, you can see sculptures of bulls and word puns (Police Station Const-a-Bull, etc.); however, the name does not refer to farming but to James Bull, who owned the first general store in town. But the whole area is about farming as the soil around here is very fertile.
We heard of many hikers who skip the section between Whanganui and Palmerston North to go straight into the Tararua Range. I can see why, but you’d miss out on seeing a part of Aotearoa, New Zealand, that might not be mind-blowing but is also part of the country: flat farmland and, with that the not-so-fancy regions. Almost all the car drivers waved at us.
The next stop was Feilding: this town won the title of New Zealand’s Most Beautiful Town 16 times! I must admit that it took a lot of effort on my side to see why, but at least they have a fantastic ice cream parlor!
The pain in my feet didn’t ease; my shoes were on the verge of falling apart, and we were tired and longed for a day of rest. I couldn’t wait to get to Palmerston North! This city of approximately 90,000 people is about 130 km north of Wellington and halfway between the Pacific and the notorious Tararua Range. Unfortunately, the selection of shoes in the stores was somewhat limited, and I had to get a pair of trail runners I was not familiar with; it also didn’t help to have to buy shoes when having blisters and joint pain in the big toe. Oh well, we enjoyed a zero-day with rest and some good food before we headed off toward the Tararua Range.
